Scene in D.C.: BlackRock’s Peter Fisher at Lab School

A leader in special education for students with learning
differences, the school drew 800 guests to dinner at the
National Building Museum, including Ambassador Michael Oren of
Israel, a former honoree. BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
were among the sponsors.

Fisher has come a long way from the special reading groups
and what he called the “misery” of homework that he endured
before he realized in his teens he had dyslexia.

The Harvard Law graduate spent 16 years at the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, became undersecretary of the U.S.
Treasury in 2001, and now is senior managing director at
BlackRock and head of its fixed-income portfolio-management
group.

Dyslexia has taught him to “slow it down,” an important
lesson in his fast-paced, number-crunching profession. Fisher
said that many times the “intuitive answer” in business is not
the best approach, citing the premise of Daniel Kahneman’s
“Thinking, Fast and Slow.”

The Lab School educates grade 1 through 12 and stresses the
value of art in its approach. Paintings, sculptures and other
artwork designed by students adorn the school’s halls.

Kate Fulton, who is in BlackRock’s government-affairs group
in Washington, has a daughter at the school. During a company
dinner last year, she learned of Fisher’s dyslexia and suggested
him as an honoree for the annual gala.

Tom Cruise

The school has been highlighting the success of people with
learning disabilities since the 1980s. Cher, Tom Cruise and
business and political leaders are among the former honorees.

Earlier in the day, Fulton and Fisher took a tour of the
school guided by student-council members with the other 2012
honorees, British artist Willard Wigan, and Ben Foss, president
and chief executive officer of Headstrong Nation, a national
nonprofit for dyslexics.

‘Renaissance Room’

Looking like a teacher, in sweater vest and glasses, Fisher
meandered through the school’s library, computer lab, science
room, theater and the “renaissance room,” where students learn
about early influential painters.

The school focuses on what the students can do best,
whether it is music or athletics or, in Fisher’s case, a great
memory and love of history. He is fond of using a historical, as
opposed to a numerical, data-based model for forecasting
economic trends.

“I think it’s about confidence,” Fisher said.

(Stephanie Green is a writer and photographer for Muse, the
arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Any opinions
expressed are her own.)